“Remaking the Heavens” /1

For long time I surfed the web in searching for hi-res digital files representing celestial (and terrestrial) gores by Venetian cartographer Vincenzo Coronelli (1650-1718). The best I found was a pdf version of the “Atlas Céleste, composé d’un globe de douze pieds de circonférence, du P. Coronelli, …”, edited in Paris in 1782, at the Bibliotèque Nationale de France website. Though they have good resolution, the scans were roughly converted in B/W files, and some of them are compromised by the book binding.

My research stopped two months ago, when I met online the “Libro dei Globi”, a collection of fac-simile gores edited by Theatrum Orbis Terrarum Ltd. (Amsterdam) in 1969, from the original Coronelli’s prints published in Venice in 1701. I could not wait anymore! I bought it from Sequitur Books (USA) and now, that big book is on my desk. So, it’s time to start my new project:

The project “Remaking the Heavens” consists in a large celestial paper globe (50 cm diam.) illustrated with digitally re-colored Coronelli’s gores from the “Libro dei Globi”, edited in Venice in 1701.

The title of the project could seem too ambitious, though what I would like to do is the modern version of the past common practise of coloring the b/w prints by hand, often according to the wishes of the buyer. Obviously, being a paper model designer, the globe will be entirely made of paper, therefore the technique I will use for making it will be completely different from the classical one. And it will be a little bit different from the other globes I designed so far.

I am always looking for historical celestial maps and globes, and I was really pleased to find your website.
Coronelli, as you know, was an illustrious globe maker, and I’d like a lot to build a replica (I have an A3 printer!). He also described his technique, but at now I wasn’t able to learn more.
The main problem, I guess, is about gluing paper pieces on a cardboard globe… each triangular sheet will change size of its own while drying, so proper matching is not guaranteed.
For a big globe, I’m considering gluing each triangle separately on a thin aluminium sheet, then modelling them on a reference globe…
Waiting for your Coronelli’s map!…. all the best, M. Vice.

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about me…

Hello!

My name is Giuseppe Civitarese (aka Pino), from Trieste, Italy. I am an oceanographer, and in my second life I am a card models builder and designer. My passion for paper modelling began in 2000, when I decided to build a paper castle for my little nephew Matteo. Later, Matteo never built any paper model. On the other hand, since then I've never abandoned this hobby. My specific interest is in designing paper automata, and terrestrial and celestial globes from digital replicas of antique maps.